This application claims priority from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/147,718, filed Aug. 6, 1999, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Since warehouse space for storage of goods is expensive, there are many advantages to an efficient and well organized vertical storage rack system which will allow the storage of goods in an orderly fashion. Since the products are stacked vertically, optimum use of the floor space may be achieved. The disadvantage is that the goods to be stored must be raised to the height of the rack where they are to be stored. The moving and especially the raising of the goods is most efficiently accomplished via fork trucks.
In as much as fork trucks require aisles to travel to the desired location to either store or retrieve goods from a particular rack, this aisle space is not available for storage. To maximize the storage area given a limited number of square feet in a building or warehouse, one must minimize the area reserved for aisle space for the fork trucks. Unfortunately, as one reduces the size of these aisles, the room to maneuver for the fork trucks is also reduced, and the end result is that the fork trucks hit the storage racks, damaging the fork trucks as well as the storage racks.
Counter-balanced fork trucks have a large counterbalancing weight on the back of the truck to compensate for the loads picked up by the forks of the truck. In some instances, in order to avoid all the extra load of the counterbalancing weights, and also to minimize the overall length of the fork trucks, fork trucks known as straddle or outrigger type trucks are used. The outrigger forks are nothing more than another pair of forks with wheels on them secured to the lower front of the forklift. These outrigger forks are not intended to raise and carry any loads. Instead, the outrigger forks ride along at ground level with the wheels contacting the floor. When a load is picked up by the fork truck, the outrigger forks press against the floor to counter the weight so as to keep the fork truck from tipping.
It is not unusual for these outrigger type fork trucks to hit and damage the base of storage racks around which they are operating. The operator is very preoccupied with the upper set of forks and where he is trying to place the goods on the rack, so he is not paying attention to the position of the outrigger forks. As he drives the truck closer to the rack in order to pick up or deliver a load of goods, he may drive one of the outrigger forks into a column, damaging the storage rack.
The column protector of this invention is intended to protect columns of a storage rack from accidental damage from fork trucks, and specifically from straddle or outrigger type fork trucks.
Each column protector wraps around the front of one of the columns of the rack and is secured to the floor. Each column protector stands guard in front of its respective column. The column protector includes a short ramp which has a front edge that lies very close to the floor level. The rear of the ramp preferably ends in a solid upright stop which is adjacent to the front of the column it protects. As a fork truck approaches the column, if the outrigger fork is aimed at the column, instead of hitting the column, the outrigger fork will ride up the slanting ramp and will pick up the wheel of the fork truck off the floor. If the truck is moving too fast, such that going up the ramp and picking up the wheel do not stop the truck, then the offending outrigger fork will hit the upright stop, and this will bring the truck to a stop before it has a chance to hit and damage the column.
The column protector of this invention preferably is manufactured from a single, thick piece of steel, which is cut and formed. The column protector is made of a much heavier gauge material than the column it is protecting.